Inside the auction house.
Richard, Pandora, Glo and Glo's guards walked into the auction venue and followed the instructions into a box on the upper floor of the venue.
The box was not small, more than ten square meters, and there were several soft and comfortable seats. Pandora occupied the largest one without any ceremony, yawned and fell on it and started to sleep. Richard and Grotto had no choice but to choose the other two with a smaller size, while Grotto's guards stood around.
Pulling open the curtain on one side of the box, Richard looked outside, overlooking the entire auction venue, and found that it was very exquisite.
The entire auction venue is not very big. After all, there are not many people who can participate in the auction. They are either nobles or rich people. However, the venue is not too small, with almost 300 seats, plus some boxes, it can accommodate nearly 350 people, which fully meets the needs. At this time, more than half of the seats in the venue were filled with people. People were talking a lot and it was very lively.
Gro, who was in the box, said: "Basically, they came here for the 'Exemption Voucher'. Originally, they wanted to get it by snatching it, but they failed, so they had to sit here and fight for it with their financial resources. Every family suffered losses last night, and I heard that some even their direct bloodline was killed, so it is inevitable that they will be angry, but there will be something good to watch later."
Richard glanced at Gro, who looked a little gloating about his misfortune, and said, "Aren't you worried that these people are robbing you of the 'exemption certificate'? Since they are all angry, then in anger, they spend a lot of money to get the 'exemption certificate'" The certificates are auctioned off and you can’t get any of them, what will you do?”
"Oh, just them?" Gro said slightly disdainfully, "Although they are both big families and have a lot of money. But most of the money must be used for daily expenses to maintain the operation of the family. Okay, there aren’t many that can really be taken out.
If I can mortgage my territory, real estate, and shops, I really don't dare to compete with them, but the auction house does not accept physical objects, only the official gold coins of the Emerald Kingdom. As for gold coins, I really don’t know who has more than me. I'm a prince. Logically speaking, the entire Emerald Kingdom has a part of me. Shouldn't I get as many gold coins as I want? "
"Alas." Groo suddenly thought of something again and sighed, "It's a pity that it wasn't earlier. I heard that earlier, when the Emerald Kingdom was still powerful, the words of the royal family were much easier to use than now. That If there really was such a thing as an 'exemption certificate', it would cost no money at all, just a word, and the nobles below would obediently offer it to the royal family. Unfortunately, the power of the royal family has weakened a lot, and the nobles are becoming more and more disobedient. . However, even so, I am confident that I can kill them with gold coins."
"So, you are going to auction off all three 'Exemption Vouchers'?"
"I do have this idea." Gro said with a smile, full of confidence, and looked at Richard, "But if you want one, Sir Richard, I will naturally give it to you."
"No, you can do whatever you want." Richard smiled.
"Uh..." Grotto only thought that Richard was speaking politely and didn't think much about it.
Richard continued to look outside the box and saw that while he was talking, the number of people in the auction venue had increased a lot, and the occupancy rate had almost reached 60%.
Then 70%...
Eighty percent…
After 80%, the number of people entering the venue began to decrease. Finally, when it reached about 85%, it stopped increasing.
It's no wonder, after all, it's impossible for all the nobles in the entire Cuijin City to come here. Eighty-half percent, already nearly three hundred people, is an extremely terrifying number.
At this time, an auctioneer about fifty years old wearing a black dress appeared, stepped onto a high platform in the auction center, knocked the gavel on the table, and said without much nonsense: "The auction begins!"
The whole place was silent.
"The first item to be auctioned." The auctioneer said crisply, "This is a miniature stone statue by the famous sculptor Habacchus."
After the auctioneer finished speaking, someone came onto the stage carrying a tray and showed everyone a pink miniature stone statue more than ten centimeters high. I saw that it was the appearance of a naked girl, the sculpture was lifelike, and there were no flaws in the expression on her face, her realistic facial features, her protruding breasts, or her tight thighs. It is considered a masterpiece of craftsmanship, and you can tell that the author spent a lot of effort on it.
"Master Habacchus, the name of this statue is Dream Girl. It is his latest work in the past six months. It definitely satisfies many people's imagination of the dream lover. Whether it is placed as a decoration at home or during leisure time They are all good to play with." The auctioneer pointed at the stone statue and praised it loudly, and then announced: "The starting price of the statue is 5 gold coins, and each increase in price must not be less than 20 silver coins."
"Okay, is there anyone bidding?" the auctioneer asked, waiting for everyone to bid.
The method of bidding is also simple. Everyone has a number plate. Holding up the number plate once means increasing the price. Of course, you can also directly shout out the amount of the increase.
Gro's number plate is No. 1, and Richard's is No. 2.
Richard guessed that this was definitely not a coincidence. It should be that the auction house specifically left the smallest number plate for Grotto in order to please him. This also shows from a certain perspective that Gro is the person with the highest status in the entire auction.
The reason why Gro was confident in auctioning all three "exemption certificates". There is no other reason than to use power to suppress others and to be willful if you have money.
Thinking about this, Richard looked at the auction venue with interest, watching everyone's reactions, but found that it was very deserted.
Not only was it deserted, it was absolutely silent. For more than a minute, no one bid. The atmosphere in the venue suddenly became a little weird and awkward.
This is not because the statue is trash. According to the quality of the statue, it only sells for 5 gold coins, which is already a low price. After all, Richard spent 100 gold coins on a huge ruby. The reason why the nobles remained silent was because most of them came with the "exemption certificate" and did not want to waste money on the "Dream Girl". They did not want to waste a single gold coin.
As a result, the first item in the auction was about to fail.
The auctioneer on the stage looked a little ugly, and many nobles looked at him coldly and uncooperatively.
The auctioneer wiped the sweat from his face, took a deep breath, and was about to announce the result helplessly, when Richard raised the sign and quoted the price aloud.
"No. 2! Increase the price once, 5 gold coins and 20 silver coins!" The auctioneer shouted immediately, with the muscles on his face trembling with excitement, "On the 2nd, has anyone increased the price?"
"Two times on the 2nd, 5 gold coins and 20 silver coins, has anyone raised the price?" the auctioneer yelled, scratching his neck.
"Three times on the 2nd, 5 gold coins and 20 silver coins. Has anyone raised the price? No, okay, deal!" The auctioneer made the final decision, and then breathed a sigh of relief.
Although the stone statue was sold for 5 gold coins and 20 silver coins, making almost no profit, at least it avoided the embarrassing situation of being unsold. Without worrying about gains and losses, the auctioneer waved his hand and asked the staff to deliver the things to Richard and Gro's boxes.
Originally, logically, payment would not be handed over until the end of the auction, but that was a system established only in modern auctions. In the Middle Ages, when the auction system was not perfect at all, it was basically done as convenient as possible. .
Soon, the things were delivered to the box, and Richard paid for them neatly.
Groo looked at Richard strangely and asked in confusion: "Your Excellency Richard, what is the use of this thing?"
"Well, I just like it a little bit. The price is not expensive anyway." Richard said.
"Uh, okay." Grotto stopped asking.
In fact, the reason why Richard auctioned off the stone statue was naturally not because he liked it, and it was impossible to like it. The real reason is that Richard fell in love with the material for carving stone statues - pink stone.
Richard suspected that the pink stone was not an ordinary material, but manganese zoisite. Manganese zoisite is a variant of zoisite that is pink in color because it is rich in manganese.
Richard auctioned off the stone statue in order to crush the stone statue and extract the manganese element inside. After all, part of the manganese was used to make cobalt blue glass, so the reserve was already somewhat insufficient and needed to be replenished in time.
Such behavior is naturally suspected of buying pearls for repayment, but Richard doesn't care.
Compared to the stone statues, Richard felt that the scarce element manganese was more precious. It was worth more than 5 gold coins without investing a lot of effort in finding it.
With this thought in mind, Richard put away the pink stone statue and looked outside the box.
In the venue, the auction continues.